I'm embarrassed at not having already read Michi Nishiura Weglyn's Years of Infamy, but am all the more inspired to do so after reading Ken Mochizuki's edifying tribute to her life and work. Reading this has clarified so many different things I've studied, read and heard about over the years, yet lacked context for as a Japanese-American without family who'd experienced the camps. Despite my having been actively involved with the JACL in the early 2000s, I could never understand why the organization was so vilified in the NoNo Boys book, but now I get it. The photos and background provided are riveting. Readers don't have to be Japanese or Asian to appreciate this book, the research that went in to it, the integrity it celebrates, and the racism its heroine calls out. And although it's classified as Middle Grade Nonfiction, I have to say I got a lot out of it as an aged parent of high schoolers, and will definitely be encouraging my teens to read this as well.

Michi Challenges History is due for publication March 14, 2023. Thank you to NetGalley and publishers for the ARC.

The internment of Japanese-Americans in camps is one of the dark moments in American history. If you’ve not read much about these sinister events then this short book is an excellent starting point. It tells the story of this dark moment through a biography of a Japanese-American lady, Michi, who was forcibly held in one of these camps then published a history of the camps in the 1970s in response to the US government denying that these camps had ever existed. In the 1980s, the US government passed a bill admitting these camps were wrong and awarding compensation to any still living survivors.

In this biography, Michi comes through as an extremely bright child and full of compassion with a big smile. The injustice that she was locked up solely on the basis of her ethnicity, despite winning awards for her academics, is brought out well. There are lots of photographs throughout the book of both Michi as well as life in the camps and some of the legal documents which “permitted” the holding of Japanese-Americans in these camps.

A well written introduction to both Michi and the camps. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This is one of those books that an adult and a child can both appreciate and learn something as they read. Mochizuki did his research and presented us with a wonderful accounting of Michi's life and her motivations. I'm happy to see this addition to the genre of Japanese-American history.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. I hope it finds its way to many families!

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher WW Norton, and the author Ken Mochizuki for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. As someone who has read a number of Japanese American internment literature, I welcome the addition of discovering more works in this body and canon of work. I find the history personal as an Asian-American living near places of Japanese American history (i.e. in the Pacific Northwest, Seattle, and Tacoma). Learning about the unjust dispossession, displacement, and incarceration of Japanese-Americans continues to be relevant today to the deportation of Latine and Southeast Asian people. Before I read this work, I was only familiar with Yuri Kochiyama as a figure of Japanese American reparations, but through Mochizuki's labor and care work I learned about Michi as well. Mochizuki gives a brief overview that introduces Michi to the reader and has made me aware of her work and curious enough to read it. I'm glad Mochizuki also mentions and details the internment of Japanese-Latine people. I appreciate Mochizuki's efforts in crafting and researching this history and opening up the dimensions of this event for me. Because of Mochizuki, I want to learn more about Michi and Japanese-Latine people. Thank you Mochizuki for your work.